Readers' comments

The virus of 1918 was taken first where it initially occurred from Southern States of the USA to Europe research now concludes. These were in healthy young hosts and at their age had strong immune systems. When this virus spread through the trenches these young soldiers were struck down and it is estimated that more of our soldiers died from the virus that German bullets and bombs. when the war ended the virus was taken back across the world as the soldiers arrived back from the great war. those it infected also had strong immune systems but it still killed tens of millions. As there were only around 1.8 billion humans then and now there are over 7 billion, a similar deadly virus will kill up to 378 million worldwide and possibly even more because of rapid transit systems around the world. Indeed possibly double this number if a human-to-human avian flu pandemic emerged (which it unfortunately will) to nearly 800 million deaths. That is why this drugs strategy is so futile as hardly any of these will be saved due to the time it takes to create an antidote, mass manufacture and distribute to the world-at-large – approx. 6 months longer than the when the Spanish Flu did its worst in 1918 when up to 100 million lives were taken by this killer virus. It is also one of the most dreadful ways to die if readers research the Spanish Flu. Therefore we really have to adopt the strategy http://avian-influenza.cirad.fr/content/download/1931/11789/file/Kennedy... before it is far too late to do anything. We are basically working on borrowed time and that is a truism of the first order.

The recent release of Bird Flu research information, where a few mutations could lead to an airborne pandemic, is a nightmare scenario. In 1997 the pandemic was stopped in its tracks in Hong Kong. The system adopted was not reliant upon a drug cure but that prevention was better than cure dictate. It worked and Ken Shortridge who devised the strategy was given the Asian equivalent of the Nobel Prize in medicine, The Prince Mahidol Award. By doing this Prof. Shortridge stopped a bird flu pandemic starting and which had the propensity to kill millions (the only one ever to prevent the deaths of incalculable numbers). The pandemic premise was, ‘don’t let it start in the first place’. Why therefore it has to be asked has the establishment forgotten the first dictum of good medical health thinking that ‘prevention is better than cure'? For in the future humanity has to adopt the only global strategy that will stop in the greatest human mass killer ever happening - http://avian-influenza.cirad.fr/content/download/1931/11789/file/Kennedy...
And why have those who are advocating a drug cure not taken on-board this system that has worked? This question is postulated because the Swine Flu pandemic showed that with reference to the Spanish Flu in 1918 which took up to 100 million lives, that a cure would come too late. In this respect it was not until 7 months 1 week that a vaccine was created and then it had to be manufactured and thereafter distributed to the masses (a logistical nightmare). In the second wave of the Spanish Flu, after the virus had mutated again into a human-to-human killer, it did its worst between week 16 and week 26, some 1 month 1 week before a cure was found for the Swine Flu pandemic. Therefore whatever way we look at it a drug vaccine will come too late to save us, no matter who we are from the president of the United States downwards. Fact not fiction. Indeed Margaret Chan, Director-General of the WHO says that it is only a matter of time not when the killer virus will emerge - may be next week, next month, next year or whenever; but it will happen sometime and such a pandemic according to pandemic researchers is now overdue. Therefore we are living on borrowed time and we have to adopt Prof. Shortridge's strategy for the good of all humanity.

Why would the mutations have to appear simultaneously? I was under the impression that evolution works through the gradual accretion of individual changes. So long as each mutation is not subject to negative selection pressure, or a new mutation negates the previous one, there's no apparent reason why each mutation could not arise individually and then be added to the genome sequentially.

Hi,
That the Influenza A virus subtype H5N1 could course a global pandemic could be nonsense. In light of the work of a novel, highly contagious strain of H5N1 being created by Ron Fouchier of the Erasmus Medical Centre in Rotterdam probably paid by some military budget has initiated intense open discussion. If one looks at the history of infectious diseases the most virulent bugs seem to have a characteristic Epidemiology behaviour. For example the Ebola virus, a Bundibugyo virus (derived from the name of the chief town of the Ugandan Bundibugyo District) kill most people in its origin of outback and then seems to run out of steam to spread or course a pandemic such being its own “Achilles Heel”. The virulence of a bug need energy to sustain its momentum and killing of all it victims cuts the mode of infection. To avoid a Tamifluastrophe of stock piling and giving medicine that doesn’t work we must have a perspective. The comparison of the H5N1 to the 1918 flu strain (a subtype of avian strain H1N1) is wrong. First 1918, the end of a terrible war and the dietary related nutritional conditions of the affected population was not the best as also the medical treatment and care. Today’s population with its “Big-Mac” immunology is different, the exception being the poor parts of for example Africa. A solution is in the "chemokine receptor antagonist" or a "CCR5 inhibitor" of which I have previously told you about. That the milatary finance such research as in Rotterdam is an indication of the kill all and go in later strategy.

History cannot lie and the Spanish Flu did happen. If you are disputing this where is your evidence? If it happening in 1918 a very similar killer virus can happen today, tomorrow, next week or whenever. It is only a matter of time that all world-leading viruologists will tell you. I agree that Tamiflu is also useless as the Vietnamese doctors found out and openly expressed. Another con on society like a great deal of so-called wonder drugs. Unfortunately today global businesses (all when it comes down to the bottom-line) have no empathy with society no matter is you are a multi-national drugs company of an international bank. Examples are constantly emerging to verify this non-human sustainability mindset by our giant corporates. The Barclays Bank Group £290 million fine for corrupting the interest rates of customers worldwide is just the tip of the iceberg.

One good thing about the WWW is that these people and corporates are more easily found out these days. But because also they have a rouge gene usually found in these type of corporate leaders (those who instigate these scams on society) they have no empathy with society, only themselves (Horizon programme 2012).

In 1997 the pandemic was stopped in its tracks in Hong Kong. The system adopted was not reliant upon a drug cure but that prevention was better than cure. It worked and Ken Shortridge who devised the strategy was given the Asian equivalent of the Nobel Prize in medicine – The Prince Mahidol Award. By doing this Prof. Shortridge stopped a bird flu pandemic starting and which had the propensity to kill millions (the only one ever to do so and prevent the deaths of incalculable numbers). The premise was, ‘don’t let it start in the first place’. Why has the establishment therefore forgotten the first dictum of medical health that ‘prevention is better than cure?’

So why have those who are advocating a drug cure not taken on-board this system that has worked? This question is postulated because the Swine Flu pandemic showed that with reference to the Spanish Flu in 1918 which took up to 100 million lives, that a cure would come too late. In this respect it was not until 7 months 1 week that a vaccine was created and then it had to be manufactured and thereafter distributed to the masses (a logistics nightmare). In the second wave of the Spanish Flu, after the virus had mutated into a human-to-human killer, it did its worst between week 16 and week 26, some 1 month 1 week before a cure was found for the Swine Flu pandemic.
Therefore whatever way we look at it a drug vaccine will come too late to save us, no matter who you are from the president of the United States downwards. Fact not fiction.